Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1887-03-31
The Star of Bethlehem.
[Chicago Tribune. !


The New York Herald has recently de-
voted considerable of its space to the So
called Star of Bethlehem" and its de-
scriptiOn has been copied into other papers
far and wide. The special stimulus for the
effort is the expectation by some people
that the star which burst upon the vision
of Tycho Brahe November II. 1872, will
reappear in 1887, its period as variable
being assumed to be 315 years. The pre-
diction is based upon the recorded occur
renee of similar phenomena in the years
1864 and 945. AS these three dates are
separated by intervals of 3OS and 319 years,
and as three previous appearances at cor
responding intervals would carry us back to
the beginning of the Chistian era, some
would-be wise man has jumped to the con-
clusiOn that this star is the one which ap-
peared at the birth of Christ. The hint
has been so extensively accepted that a
great many people are on the qui vive for
a sight of the stranger, and seem to await
it with confidence that there can be no
mistake in regard to it.
A little closer acquaintance with the
facts will suffice to show that the whole
thing is blunder-at least in so far as
identity may be claimed for the star seen
by Tycho with that reported by Matthew
to have gone before the wise men of the
East in their search for the infant Savior
The language of the gospel is that the star
went till it stood over where the young
child was" That means that the star
must have been very near the vertical
when it passed the meridian above the
pole, in which case its declination was not
more than 800 north. The apparitiOns re-
terred to as having occurred in subsequent
years were visible not far from 600 Of north
declination and could never approach the
point overhead at Bethlehem so nearly as
the midsummer sun comes to our zenith.
1t is evident that such star could not fill
the conditions laid down in the gospel, and
a temperance in the latter part of the
nineteenth century could not be properly
regarded as forming a connecting link be-
tween US and the scenes enacted near
Jerusalem 1,S91 years ago.
There is really no proof of identity be.
tween the star seen by TychO and those
strangers which blazed out in earlier years.
The positions of none of them except the
last were noted precisely enough to enable
the astronomer to draw a connecting line
between them. But it is not beyond the
range of possibility that variable star
should exist with such long period,
though it is difficult to do more than guess
at the conditions that would cause star
to blaze up at such long intervals and die
out to invisibility during the lapse of such
enormous cycles. Several cases of varia-
bility within less time are known, the two
most notable examples being Algol, which
goes through all its changes in few days,
and Myra, which REQUIRES the largest
part Of year for the details of itsperform-
ance. But these and all the other known
variables keep in the same point of the
heavens, as referred to the earth, while
passing from dimness to effulgence and
back again to the phase of faintness of
light There is no reason to think that an
object, variable or otherwise, can describe
Journey extending over twelfth part of
the circumference of the sphere and return
at the vast lineal distance that separates
us from the nearest fixed star. Such an
idea involves what may be called math-
ematical absurdity, which must be ac-
cepted by those who expect to see the Star
of Bethlehem shine out in the constella-
tion of Cassiopea, which is where Tycho
saw his marvel.